Assuming they didn’t depend on ground stations for anything in 1998 that might poke a hole in the story. On the other hand you can’t exactly use one of those inside NORAD’s bunker so they could have been blind until someone setup an independent relay.
The whole early warning system was not down, Long range radars are independent, not connected to the internet, and in the worst case they could use a phone and smoke signals. There was no credible nuclear threat.
Given that you can't refer anyone to anything written, this whole story defies logic and smells of a dead possum.
